Mar 15th Update

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Hello, Everyone!
It's already warm here this morning (it's 10:45 am on Monday). We haven't had rain for several days, so it's gotten very hot again in Budaka. Last night at 10pm, it was 82 degrees in my room. I keep praying for rain, but apparently someone is praying harder on the other side :-).
Here are some things that are happening:

• Dina Poulin and I made American pancakes for the kids for breakfast last week. You have to imagine, though, the conditions first. We have a large pan (about 4' in diameter and about 12" deep) which is put over a big fire. I put some oil in the pan (it's not non-stick, of course) and the pan was too hot and the oil caught fire. The Ugandan cooks looked at us like we were crazy - I guess we were... Then, think about standing over a fire with smoke filling the area - your eyes and lungs are full of it as you try to turn pancakes with a round implement with holes in it - there is nothing like a pancake spatula here. Then we did not put enough oil in the next time, so the pancakes stuck to the pan. Finally we got everything going well and began mass producing them - we could do about 6 at a time. I had bought syrup at the American store in Kampala and I think maybe the reason the kids liked them is they were sweet - they don't have much that is sweet here. The cooks ended up liking the pancakes, but seemed glad when we finished and got out of their "kitchen."
• We had to cut the fence around the outside of the orphanage about 4” up as the termites were eating it. Now they can’t get to it. The posts have been treated and the termites can’t reach the other parts. Termites are bad here - before we even moved into this place, the termites had eaten about 2 inches of my inside office door. Sometime I will send a picture so you can see.
• We now have a supplier of all foods for the orphanage – he comes each day, as necessary, to deliver food. He brought 50 kilogram bags of rice, sugar, posho, millet flour, beans – things we use regularly. So now our food costs will be under control.
• I looked at the original picture of our children that we took when they came for interviews with their guardians. WOW! They have changed so much. Their skin looks great, their faces are cheerful and full of life. They have meat on their bones. It is so wonderful to see the change in only 4 weeks. As we pray for them each night in their beds, I am struck with the Lord’s words over each about what He will do in their lives…and what He is doing presently in their lives. I shared at evening devotions with them last week about spending time with Jesus (taught from the story of Mary and Martha) and encouraged them to that very night begin talking and listening to Him. There are 5 rooms – 3 for boys and 2 for girls. As we went into one of the rooms, the boys were in their beds praying already. Ben, our oldest boy, was on his knees up in his upper bunk, intently talking to the Lord. It warmed my heart so much!
• I am sending updated pictures of the kids back with Dina and they should be on the website soon, so be sure to go there to check them out. It is www.cornerstoneministriesuganda.org.
• I have sent you a picture of Rogers and some of his family at his daughter, Samantha's visitation day. She is in boarding school and you can only visit once a term, so this was the day. The older girl is a friend of theirs and is not part of the family. The young boy is Prosper - he is 4 years old. Rogers' wife, Betty is on the right holding their new baby, Hope. Samantha is in the uniform sort of in the middle. And, of course, I'm the white one. It looks like I was photoshopped into the picture...

Love hearing from you! Thanks for praying for us and giving as the Lord leads.

Talk to you again next week!

Laurie